This article by Professor Osman G. Ozgudenli first appeared in the Encyclopedia Iranica on July 20, 2005.=====================================================

Historical background. Turkish libraries today possess the richest and most valuable collection of Islamic manuscripts (henceforth MSS) in the world. They were collected over a long period of time. The Persian MSS in the libraries of Istanbul and Anatolia today were collected from four sources: (1) Persian manuscripts written, translated, and copied in Anatolia. (2) Persian manuscripts brought into Anatolia by immigrant scholars. (3) Persian MSS brought to Anatolia by traders. 4) Persian MSS brought there as booty of the wars and conquests of the 16th and 18th centuries.

The question is how these MSS, originally belonging to the Il-khanid, Āq Qoyunlu (qq.v.), Timurid, and Safavid dynasties, reached the Ottoman libraries. A significant number of the Persian MSS kept in Istanbul libraries was obtained over the course of several centuries during Ottoman military campaigns. As a result, a large manuscript collection was established in the Topkapı Palace. It consisted mainly of books obtained from newly conquered territories, in particular from Syria and Egypt, which had been conquered in the early 16th century, during the reign of Selim I. Other MSS were added to this from various private collections. The MSS that formerly belonged to the Mamluk sultan Qānṣawh II Ḡawri (r. 1501-17) and were subsequently kept at the Istanbul Libraries (Topkapı Palace Library Hazine, no. 1519; Süleymaniye Library, Reisülküttap, no. 402) may be cited as an example of such an addition by conquest. Moreover, several pieces of armour belonging to Āq Qoyunlu royalty, as well as some private written correspondence kept at the Topkapı Palace Museum, verify that valuable items were seized from the Qara Qoyunlus, Āq Qoyunlus, and Safavids by the Ottomans and delivered to the imperial capital Istanbul. Additionally, archival documents testify that in 1514, after the battle of Čālderān (q.v.) and the subsequent occupation of Tabriz by the Ottomans, most of the famous local artists were removed to Istanbul by the order of Selim I. It is most certain that a great number of invaluable MSS was also taken to Istanbul along with other items, as happened in the case of Syria and Egypt. There exists some evidence for this from two documents kept at the Istanbul libraries. The first one is a copy ofTāriḵ-e firuzšāhi by Ḥāji Moḥammad b. Ḥāji ʿAli Biḡāmi, by the hand of the well-known calligrapher Moḥammad Qawām Kāteb Širāzi, written for the private library of Shah Ṭahmāsb I (r. 1524-76; Aya Sofya, no. 3055; FIGURE 5). The second work is a majmuʿa kept in Istanbulʾs Süleymaniye Library, which was previously owned by Shah Esmāʿil I (r. 1501-24, q.v.), the founder of the Safavid empire and was later donated by Shah ʿAbbās I (r. 1587-1629) to the library located within the shrine complex of Shaikh Ṣāfi-al-Din in Ardabil (Hekimoğlu Ali Paşa, no. 725). The black paint on the record of the pious foundation (waqf) of ʿAbbās I is very interesting (FIGURE 6). The aforementioned two MSS are evidence of the acquisition of some works by Ottoman libraries from the Safavid palace and the endowment libraries by means not yet identified. It is likely that many of the MSS were acquired in a similar way.

Most of the Persian MSS kept at the libraries in Istanbul and Anatolia are on literary topics. The most popular works of Persian literature in the Ottoman lands were Persian divans of Persian and Ottoman poets. On the basis of the number of works copied, one might assume that Jāmi was perhaps the most popular Persian poet in Ottoman court circles. History books such as the Rawżat al-ṣafā of Mirḵᵛānd, theTajziat al-amṣār wa tazjiat al-aʿṣār of Šehāb-al-Din ʿAbd-Allāh Waṣṣāf, and the Hašt behešt of Edris Bedlisi (q.v.) were also sought for (FIGURE 7 and FIGURE 8a;FIGURE 8b). Elegantly-styled letters were the third most popular genre after literature and history books. The most popular works in this category were by Rašid-al-Din Waṭwāt (d. 1182-83), the chief secretary of the Ḵᵛārazmshahs.

Copying of Persian books for the private libraries of Ottoman sultans decreased gradually after the 16th century, while, by the 17th century, translation activities from Persian into Ottoman-Turkish had steadily increased in Anatolia. Many works, including the aforementioned Rawżat al-ṣafā and the Tajziyat al-amṣār, were translated from Persian into Turkish for Ottoman readers. The following first decades of the 18th century may even be defined as the “golden” period of the Ottoman libraries, as very extensive libraries, such as Aya Sofya, Nuruosmaniye and Şehit Ali Paşa, were founded in this period (see Erünsal 1998, pp. 19-29).Persian MSS preserved in the Istanbul libraries were classified according to the transcribers, although some of them had copied more than one or two works. According to the related records affixed to these MSS, transcribers sometimes copied the same work in different forms (see Özgüdenli and Ergoğan 2004, p. 72).

There are also several autographs among the works of literature and history. For example, at the libraries of Istanbul there are works by the hand of some of the mostproficient Persian writers, such as Abu’l-Fatḥ Moḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abi Bakr Kārtāni, Waṣṣāf, Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru, Jāmi, Edris Bedlisi, ʿAṭāʾ-Allāh b. Fażl-Allāh Jamāl Ḥosayni, Ḥasan Beg Rumlu, Ṣāʾeb Tabrizi, Kamāl b. Jalāl Monajjem Yazdi, and Mirzā Ḥabib Eṣfahāni.

Persian MSS in the libraries of modern Turkey. Turkish libraries possess the richest collection of Islamic MSS in the world. This priceless treasure consists of approximately 250,000 MSS, written in Arabic (160,000), Ottoman-Turkish (70,000) and Persian (13,000). Their total number could well reach up to 600,000. To this we have to add the majmuʿas and thousands of pamphlets and reports that are preserved in archives, as well as the MSS in private collections. Approximately 220,000 volumes of those MSS are kept in the libraries and museums of the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Although there are still no systematic catalogues, it is nevertheless possible to say that only 6-7 percent of those MSS are in Persian. They are, however, far more significant in terms of their age, originality, and value as pieces of art rather than their sheer number. Most of the MSS in Turkish libraries fall into the categories of Persian language, literature, history, and culture. Their distribution as per cities and libraries is as follows:

A. Manuscript collections of the Istanbul libraries. Approximately 146,000 MSS out of the total number of 250,000 MSS kept in the Turkish libraries are in Istanbul. Accordingly, it is safe to state that Istanbul is the host of the largest collection of Islamic MSS in the world.

C. Catalogue studies. Initial researches on the cataloguing of the MSS kept in Turkish libraries began in the second half of the 19th century. The first collective catalogue was prepared in handwriting between 1851 and 1854 in order to determine the numbering of the MSS kept in the Istanbul libraries. The library regulation prepared by Münif Paşa contains some provisions regarding the preparation of an index (defter) for MSS. ‘The Index of Ragıp Paşa Library’ (Ragıp Paşa Kütüphânesi fihristi) was published in 1868, based on the earlier handwritten index prepared by ʿAbduʾr-rahman Nacim (ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Najim) in 1279 /1862-63.

A commission was established between 1884 and 1885. It consisted of Tahsin (Taḥsin) Efendi, Selim Sabit Efendi, Ahmed Hamdi (Aḥmad Ḥamdi), Mustafa (Moṣṭafā) Efendi, Aristokrit Efendi in order to prepare the indexes for the Istanbul libraries during the reign of Sultan ʿAbdü’l-Hamid (ʿAbd-al-Ḥamid) II (r. 1876-1909). Based on the researches of this commission, the work known as ‘Indices of the Ḥamidian Period’ (Devr-i ḥamidi fihristleri) was published, which arranged the MSS kept in 64 Istanbul libraries in terms of their subjects into forty books (see Turgut Kut, pp. 221-27). A report prepared by Ahmed Zeki Bey (later Pasha) (1867-1934), second secretary to the Egyptian prime minister and himself an eminent scholar, regarding the preparation of general indices was presented to the Ottoman grand vizier in 1909. In this report, deficiencies of the previous indexes were indicated, along with a detailed description regarding the future preparation of indexes. The work consists of twenty-one articles which examine the preparation methods of indexes in detail. Shortly after this report, Ahmed Muhtar (Moḵtār) Bey, Inspector of the Ministry of Endowment (waqf) Estates, was appointed to prepare a collective catalogue of the Istanbul endowment libraries. However, nothing serious came out of this project.

Following the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, the preparation of the manuscript catalogues was resumed and a classification committee was established in 1927. However, the activities of this committee continued for only six months, but led, in 1933, to the formation of a second classification committee, led by the late German scholar Hellmut Ritter, which published later The Catalogues of Turkish Manuscripts (referring to those kept in the Istanbul libraries). The first scientific and systematic catalogue in seven volumes of the Ottoman-Turkish, Persian and Arabic MSS in the Topkapı Palace Library was published between 1961 and 1969 by Fehmi Edhem Karatay, who had studied library science in France. The Persian section of this catalogue includes and introduces 940 unique and important MSS.

The catalogue of the Köprülü Library, which houses one of most the important Islamic MSS collections in the world, was prepared by Ramazan Şeşen, Cevat İzgi and Cemil Akpınar and was published in 1986. The Persian MSS catalogue of Istanbul University was published by Tawfiq Hāšempur Sobḥāni and Ḥosām-al-Din Āqsu/Hüsamettin Aksu in 1995 in Tehran.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, several systematic catalogues and related studies have been published by the Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) at Istanbul, an institution affiliated to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). They provide a good introduction to the manuscripts kept at the Istanbul libraries, focusing especially on Ottoman science literature. Of special relevance are the following: “The Catalogue of Islamic Medical Manuscripts in Turkey” (1984), “History of Ottoman Astronomy Literature” (I-II, 1997), “History of Ottoman Mathematics Literature” (I-II, 1999), “History of Ottoman Geography Literature” (I-II, 2000), “History of Ottoman Music Literature” (2003), and “History of Ottoman Military Literature” (I-II, 2004) (for the original titles of these books see Bibliography (General Studies)).

A few systematic catalogues that have been published for MSS are kept at the Anatolian libraries that are affiliates of Istanbul libraries. Initial researches regarding this subject were introduced at the 22nd International Congress of Orientalists held in Istanbul in 1951. Subsequently, booklists of the respective inventories of some Anatolian libraries, such as those in Bursa, Kayseri, Akşehir, Bolu, Gülşehir, Nevşehir, Niğde, Ürgüp, Konya, Manisa, and Akhisar, were prepared. The Persian MSS catalogue of the Konya Mevlânâ Museum Library, for instance, has been prepared by Abdülbâkî Gölpınarlı (1900-82, q.v.) in four volumes. Gölpınarlı had also prepared the subject catalogue of the MSS belonging to this museum and of the endowment MSS, which was eventually published in two volumes in 2003, more than 20 years after his death. The calalogues of Persian MSS kept at the Manisa and Bursa libraries have been published by Tawfiq H. Sobḥāni in Tehran in Persian language (in 1987 and 1989, respectively).

However, it has to be noted that some of those catalogues mentioned have not been prepared in accordance with modern scholarly standards, because of a lack of qualified personnel. Moreover, some of those studies are based on wrong and insufficient information, and some catalogues do not have even basic indexes. Therefore, the problems surrounding the quality of the available catalogues are among the major obstacles for scholars working on MSS in Turkey.

D. Selective catalogues and reviews of manuscripts. Some selective catalogues and introductory studies, written on MSS in general or for private purposes, play an important role for the identification of the MSS in Istanbul.

Generally speaking, since the middle of the 19th century, Western scholars had been aware of the importance of the Islamic MSS in the libraries of Istanbul. Some of those MSS have been the subject of a number of articles since those days. The first scholarly study on the Persian MSS in Istanbul libraries was carried out by Paul Horn in 1900. The Persian historical MSS in the Istanbul libraries were introduced by Felix Tauer between 1931 and 1932 in a series of five articles (see Bibliography).

In 1956, in anticipation of the 2,500th anniversary of the foundation of the Persian monarchy, a commission consisting of Helmut Ritter, Herbert W. Duda, and Ahmed Ateş was established by UNESCO to prepare a catalogue of the Persian poetry MSS kept in the Istanbul libraries. The first part of this catalogue was prepared by Ateş (d. 1966), listing Persian MSS in the Nuruosmaniye and Istanbul University libraries (Ateş, 1968). Persian MSS written in verse and kept at the Esad Efendi Library have been introduced by Duda within the same project (Duda, 1964). Persian poetry MSS belonging to the Ismail Saib Sencer and Raif Yelkenci collections of the Ankara University School of Language, History and Geography have been the subject of an unpublished MA thesis by Filiz İmecik in 1966 and those at the Aya Sofya Library were studied by Fatemeh Mohadjeri as a Ph.D. dissertation (1973). The catalogue of Persian poetry MSS in the Fatih Library, prepared by Ritter (d. 1971), was published after his death (Ritter 1986). Arabic and Persian anonymous enšā collections (MSS collections of letters, documents or state papers) kept in Istanbul libraries have been introduced by Jürgen Paul (Paul 1994).

Along with the introductory reviews already mentioned, there are studies that are more specialized. Ritter, for instance, has made important contributions introducing several Arabic and Persian MSS of the Istanbul and Anatolian libraries. Some of his articles under the title of “Philologika” were reproduced by Fuad Sezgin (in BeiträgeII, pp. 1-682). Ateş, too, has made significant contributions in this field. Subsequently, Turkish and Iranian scholars, such as Zeki Velidî Togan, Süheyl Ünver, Mojtabā Minovi, Adnan Sadık Erzi, Tahsin Yazıcı, Ramazan Şeşen, Orhan Bilgin, Günay Kut, Mikâil Bayram, and Tawfiq Hāšempur Sobḥāni, contributed other important articles.

E. The project of the “Collective Catalogue of MSS in Turkey” (Türkiye Yazmaları Toplu Kataloğu, ‘TüYATOK’). A long-term project was commenced in 1978 by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in order to publish the “Collective Catalogue”of Islamic MSS in Turkey. It progressed rather slowly due to an insufficient number of qualified personnel and financial limitations. So far, it has published twenty-six volumes of catalogues, introducing 28,182 MSS (about 11% the total number), which, together with 3,384 MSS listed in the National Library Catalogue (6 vols., Ankara, 1987-2001), brings the total number of catalogued MSS to 31,566.Many of those manuscript-libraries that have yet not been included in scholarly catalogues have, nevertheless, some inventory records and basic indexes. Such records, however, are in many cases insufficient and suffering from various other defects, which often make them of little use to the researcher.

Although many of the un-catalogued libraries do not have a systematic inventory, researchers are often able to have access to the MSS or use the microfilms and CDs in the Istanbul libraries. However, it can be very difficult to use the libraries in Anatolia and to obtain microfilms and CDs from them. The case is similar is the case with regard to the preservation and restoration of the MSS.

F. Computer-supported programs. With the admittance of a project presented to the Fund for National Promotion of the Prime Ministry in 1998, the cataloguing and computerizing of 15,059 MSS (some 30,000 works) in the Library of the School of Language, History and Geography of Ankara University commenced in May 1999. As part of the project, the bibliographical preparation works have been continued and information from library-cards is currently being transferred to computers. The long-term objective is to provide scholars with internet-access to MSS and bibliographical records (Atılgan, pp. 158-59).

Despite all those efforts, only a small number of Islamic MSS in the Turkish libraries could have been processed. Many of the Turkish libraries lack a systematic catalogue. Moreover, some of the invaluable libraries have not prepared identification cards. In many of those libraries researchers still have to refer to the library registers designed during the Ottoman era. Since there does yet not exist a collective catalogue covering all of the Istanbul libraries, it is at present impossible for the scholar to make sufficient use of such invaluable works of art. A steady progress of the computerization-project is therefore highly desirable.

About Dr. Kaveh Farrokh

Dr. Kaveh Farrokh is dedicated to the Advancement of Ancient Iranian and Classical Studies. The relationship between ancient Iran and the civilizations of the Greco-Roman world (and its European successors), India, China and the Far East, and the Arabo-Islamic world are a major focus of this website. Civilizations are rarely conceived in a vacuum and are often the result of the synthesis of a number of elements, examples being the Roman Empire, ancient Iran and India.